A gasp escaped her and she shuddered at the wet warmth tugging on the aroused tip.
Reaching between them, she wrapped her fingers around his hard flesh. The scent of her arousal and his heat filled her head, making it spin. She positioned herself over his erection then slowly rubbed the velvety head along her wet, swollen cleft. That single touch ignited her like a match to gunpowder and she couldn’t wait any longer to feel him inside her.
Grasping his shoulders, she sank down, a slow, slick impalement that shot sweet, hot pulses of pleasure through her. His growl of approval vibrated against her breast and he drew her nipple deeper into his hot mouth. She slowly rose, then lowered herself again.
“Eric,” she said, her voice a breathless moan. “You feel so…” Her voice trailed off into a groan when he ground up, embedding himself deeper.
“So tight,” he whispered, grazing his teeth along her neck. “So wet and hot. Don’t stop.”
She didn’t, taking him in long, languid strokes that he met with increasingly demanding upward thrusts. She picked up the pace, lost in pleasure, both of them straining harder for the next stroke. Her climax exploded, and with a cry her body arched as the convulsions throbbed through her. With a dark growl, Eric ground his hips into hers and she felt him pulse inside her. Limp and panting, with aftershocks still rippling through her, Jessica melted against him, her head flopping forward like a rag doll’s to rest against his shoulder.
“I’ll untie you as soon as I can move,” she managed to say between erratic breaths.
“Don’t worry about it-I can’t move a muscle anyway,” he said, sounding as breathless as she was. “Good thing I’ve got a strong heart, otherwise that would have killed me.” He turned his head and brushed his lips over her damp forehead.
“Yet I don’t sense that’s a complaint.”
His huff of warm breath ruffled her hair. “Hardly. Best damn Christmas present I ever got.”
She summoned the energy to lift her head and gazed into his slumberous, sexy eyes. “Glad you liked it.”
“‘Liked’ is a pretty lukewarm word.”
“Does that mean my debt is paid?”
“In full. In fact, I think now I owe you two.”
She looped her arms around his neck and gave him a slow, deep kiss. After she lifted her head, she asked, “Do you think it’ll always be this…magical between us?”
His gaze turned serious. “Yeah, I do. Because I love you just as much when we’re not naked. You’re the most incredible woman I’ve ever met-in bed, out of bed. Everywhere. All the time. And that’s what makes it magical.”
A surge of love washed through her, wrapping around her like a warm blanket. “I think it’s been at least an hour since I told you I love you.”
“Sweetheart, you just told me-a hundred times over-with that performance.”
She waggled her brows. “Does that mean you owe me ninety-nine?” She leaned forward and nibbled on his earlobe.
“Are you trying to get me to say yes?”
“Absolutely. Is it working?”
“Absolutely.”
She leaned back and looked into his eyes. The intense love staring back at her squeezed her heart, which he’d owned from minute one.
“How incredibly lovely that we have another three days alone here,” she said, combing her fingers through the dark silk of his hair. “No interruptions, no phone calls, no families, no arguments. Just the two of us.”
Something flickered in his eyes, but was gone so fast she decided she’d imagined it.
“No interruptions,” he agreed. “Just the two of us.”
Chapter 8
“Oh. My. God. Is that my…mother?”
At Jess’s incredulous question, asked in a horrified whisper that registered at least an octave above her normal voice, Eric halted in the act of hanging their snow-covered parkas on the coatrack in the lodge’s lobby. He winced. Uh-oh. This didn’t bode well for the relaxing, early-morning breakfast he’d anticipated.
After settling the coats on the brass hooks, he turned and followed Jess’s slack-jawed, wide-eyed stare across the lobby toward the lounge area. And his stomach sank into his snow-encrusted boots.
Carol sat in profile to them at one of the low tables, a steaming ceramic mug set in front of her, chatting away on the cell phone held to her ear. Damn. He’d thought for sure they wouldn’t run into any snowbound family members by eating so early. It was barely six-thirty, for crying out loud. Kelley would never show up anywhere before 10:00 a.m. unless a full-scale emergency was involved. She’d never been an early riser which was one reason she loved having her own business-she could set her own hours.
He figured Marc and Carol for late sleepers, too-restaurants closed late, so most of Eric’s colleagues didn’t jump out of bed at the crack of dawn. Eric normally didn’t, either, but he and Jess had fallen asleep early without ever venturing out for dinner, and had awoken at dawn. After a bout of slow, soft morning sex, they’d both been starving and the few wizened grapes left over from their picnic the night before weren’t going to do the trick. Since room service was only served in the lodge, they hadn’t been left with much choice but to get dressed and haul their butts here through the nearly three feet of fresh snow that had fallen during the storm.
Yet clearly he’d miscalculated, because there Carol sat, chatting away, waving her free hand in the air. He frowned. Who the hell talked on the phone at six-thirty in the morning?
He sighed. “Yup, that’s your mom.”
He felt the weight of Jess’s regard and turned to look at her. “You don’t sound-or look-surprised to see her.”
Clasping her hand, he led her toward the large Christmas tree so they were out of Carol’s line of vision. “I’m not. Your mom, Marc and Kelley all got snowed in with the blizzard.”
Her eyes goggled. “All three of them are here?”
“’Fraid so. Kelley’s in a cabin two doors down from ours. Your mother and Marc have rooms here in the lodge.”
“And you know this how?”
“Kelley called our cabin last evening while you were in the shower and told me.”
She folded her arms over her chest and shot him The Look. He could hear the toe of her snow boot tapping against the hardwood floor. “And you didn’t tell me because…?”
“Because I didn’t want you looking the way you’re looking right now.” He reached out and lightly clasped her stiff shoulders. “I figured if you knew they were here, you’d be worried about them calling the room, or knocking on the door.”
“And you weren’t?”
“Can’t say it didn’t cross my mind, which is why I turned off the ringer on the phone. As for banging on our door again, I’d made it very clear to all of them that we didn’t want any further interruptions.” He captured one of her hands and brought it to his mouth to kiss her palm. “Once you tied me up, I didn’t think about anything except you. I hoped we were here early enough to miss them.” Craning his neck, he peeked around the tree toward the lounge. “Just our luck she’s here so early.”
“Mom wakes up every morning at five without an alarm. Doesn’t matter what time she goes to bed, she’s up with the chickens. And she’s a light sleeper. Which made it really hard to sneak in after curfew, and impossible to sneak in after 5:00 a.m.” A quick grin flicked over her lips. “Worse for my brothers because they’re all big and clumsy and never learned the meaning of the word ‘stealth.’”
“Wish I’d known that before I suggested coming for breakfast. Who the heck do you suppose she’s talking to at this hour?”
“Her sister, my aunt Liz. She lives in Florida and also wakes up at the crack of dawn. They talk every day at this time. My brothers and I keep telling Mom that if she’d spend as much time looking for a nice man who lived nearby as she does talking to her sister who lives sixteen hundred miles away, maybe she wouldn’t be so lonely. And
